Casket is borne into basilica

Stan Honda / AFP/Getty Images

The casket of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is carried by an honor guard into Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston on Saturday. Three former presidents and the nation's elite gathered in the rain to attend the Roman Catholic funeral for Kennedy, a legendary political patriarch.

The casket of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is carried by an honor guard into Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston on Saturday. Three former presidents and the nation's elite gathered in the rain to attend the Roman Catholic funeral for Kennedy, a legendary political patriarch. (Stan Honda / AFP/Getty Images)

The casket of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is carried by an honor guard into Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston on Saturday. Three former presidents and the nation's elite gathered in the rain to attend the Roman Catholic funeral for Kennedy, a legendary political patriarch.